Nearly a month after going to Washington on a work trip, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan is offering few specifics about who she met with or what was discussed. She went, she said, to build up Oakland's profile on a national stage.

Quan said she met with Rep. Barbara Lee, an Oakland Democrat, and high-level officials of various federal agencies. She also spoke at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, an organization that tries to strengthen local ties to the federal government.

"Those are things I would hope the city would be somewhat proud of," she said in a recent interview at her City Hall office. "It makes people look at the city differently."

Quan took the trip, from Jan. 15 to 22, with her husband, Floyd Huen, and a mayoral staffer. She paid for her own and her husband's expenses to stay for the inaugural ceremonies. But taxpayers footed the bill for the rest, which was roughly $5,600, according to her spokesman Sean Maher.

Quan left for the trip a day after attending a news conference in East Oakland where Police Chief Howard Jordan said the city was operating in a virtual "state of emergency" in regards to crime. It came days after four people were slain in six hours.

She has taken criticism before for traveling during times of crisis in Oakland. Most famously, on Oct 25, 2011, she was in Washington, D.C., as police raided the Occupy Oakland encampment - and the tear-gassings of protesters on streets made international news.

Quan said she never stopped working on Oakland issues while gone, waking at 6 a.m. on one day to write a memo to the City Council about police consultant William Bratton, whose hiring was criticized by some.

Lee's office confirmed Quan's meeting with the congresswoman, but gave no details. Quan said she met with the head of FEMA, Craig Fugate. The Department of Justice did not provide anyone to talk about the issue.

Crucial meetings

Quan said her most crucial meetings were with the Department of Justice, from whom she asked for a range of items, including help in East Oakland, though she wouldn't give details.

"We don't want to tip off the bad guys," she said.

Three council members who represent East Oakland - Larry Reid, Desley Brooks and Noel Gallo - said they hadn't heard of any plans for the area. Reid said it wasn't unusual for the mayor not to share information.

Over the years, "she's not provided any detail regarding any of the meetings she's been attending on behalf of the city," said Reid. "So we're used to it."

Brooks said Quan's plans, like her effort to give intensive resources to what the mayor said was roughly the 100 most violent blocks of the city, are undermined by her lack of communication.

"The mayor has limited knowledge of what's going on on the ground," Brooks said. "She keeps coming up with ideas, like the 100-block program, and not checking in with the council members in those districts. ... It's a little bit troublesome."

Quan said she also asked for more permanent assistance from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

"I'm not going to tell you what they agreed to do and not agreed to do," she said.

A federal effort to help cities with high violence and homicides includes Detroit and Chicago, Quan said, but not Oakland - something she asked to change. But neither she nor Maher could provide a name of the project.

Quan said her trips show her collaborative style, an approach that requires working with range of agencies. Not only is she working on the national level, but she also gets involved in local boards and agencies like the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments.

Results visible later

Quan added that the fruits of her travels are visible much later. For example, she said previous trips she has taken to the nation's capital helped the Port of Oakland win a $15 million federal grant to help redevelopment at the former Oakland Army Base.

Also, in May of last year, city and federal officials announced the results of "Operation Gideon," a 4-month effort to dismantle criminal gangs and robbery crews in the city. At least 60 suspects were charged, 92 firearms seized, and 6.5 kilos of drugs confiscated, including methamphetamine, crack cocaine, marijuana and heroin.

Federal grants are group efforts, she said.

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"I would never say because I went there, I got" a federal grant, Quan said. "But it helped."

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